LETTER: Vital education portfolio is unlike any other

Khaya Sithole’s analysis is spot on — the national government’s decision to not fully fund the nationally negotiated public-sector wage agreement has indeed resulted in provincial education departments having to make difficult, nearly impossible, trade-offs (“Dismal education system needs more, not fewer, teachers,” September 19).

In the Western Cape, we decided to protect vital learner support programmes that overwhelmingly support children in poorer communities, such as school feeding and learner transport. We also protected the funding transferred to schools that allows them to pay for daily expenses such as water and lights, and upon which no-fee schools are reliant.

The decision to reduce teaching posts was not taken lightly as it will have a negative affect on our schools. Class sizes, and teacher workloads, will increase. This is the opposite of what we want to achieve in our schools. We need more teachers in our schools, not fewer teachers!

In its recent report on the Western Cape education sector the World Bank confirmed the importance of reducing class sizes through the building of new classrooms and hiring of additional teachers.

This is the direction our province has moved in, through our Rapid School Build programme and the addition of more than 2,700 teaching posts in the past three years. We’ve added R6.39bn to our provincial education budget over the past three financial years, demonstrating how much the Western Cape values basic education.

However, this investment is being reversed by the decisions taken by the national government. Basic education is a fundamental requirement for economic growth. We must ensure our children leave school ready to contribute to the economy or qualify for higher education. This requires stable and substantial funding of our provincial education departments.

Sithole is entirely correct: education is unlike any other portfolio. The futures of our children are at stake. This is why we need to make a clear decision as a country that basic education is a real priority in SA.

In the past when it came to a choice between protecting our children’s education and bailing out corrupt state-owned enterprises, the previous national administration made the wrong choice every time.

The government of national unity now has an opportunity to right those past wrongs, and to ensure children receive quality education in every province in SA.

David Maynier
Western Cape education MEC

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